Americans Outraged Over Killing of Cecil the Lion Handed Harsh Dose of Reality

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Well-Known Member

Nzou’s Wednesday op-ed in the New York Times is turning some heads — and perhaps generating just a little bit of cognitive dissonance — because he’s decidedly unsympathetic toward those outraged at Cecil the Lion’s demise.

In fact, when Nzou heard the news about Cecil, he said “the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.”

Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people? That all the talk about Cecil being “beloved” or a “local favorite” was media hype? Did Jimmy Kimmel choke up because Cecil was murdered or because he confused him with Simba from “The Lion King”?

In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror.

Nzou went on to tell how a prowling lion made life hell for him and his family, how one injured his uncle in an attack, how the predator “sucked the life out of the village: No one socialized by fires at night; no one dared stroll over to a neighbor’s homestead.”

He also couldn’t believe Cecil’s killer has been painted as a villain, which amounted to “the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my five years studying in the United States.”

Recalling the point at which the lion that menaced his loved ones finally was killed, Nzou didn’t hold back. “[N]o one cared whether its murderer was a local person or a white trophy hunter, whether it was poached or killed legally,” Nzou wrote. “We danced and sang about the vanquishing of the fearsome beast and our escape from serious harm.”

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Active Member

Nzou’s Wednesday op-ed in the New York Times is turning some heads — and perhaps generating just a little bit of cognitive dissonance — because he’s decidedly unsympathetic toward those outraged at Cecil the Lion’s demise.

In fact, when Nzou heard the news about Cecil, he said “the village boy inside me instinctively cheered: One lion fewer to menace families like mine.”

Did all those Americans signing petitions understand that lions actually kill people? That all the talk about Cecil being “beloved” or a “local favorite” was media hype? Did Jimmy Kimmel choke up because Cecil was murdered or because he confused him with Simba from “The Lion King”?

In my village in Zimbabwe, surrounded by wildlife conservation areas, no lion has ever been beloved, or granted an affectionate nickname. They are objects of terror.

Nzou went on to tell how a prowling lion made life hell for him and his family, how one injured his uncle in an attack, how the predator “sucked the life out of the village: No one socialized by fires at night; no one dared stroll over to a neighbor’s homestead.”

He also couldn’t believe Cecil’s killer has been painted as a villain, which amounted to “the starkest cultural contradiction I’d experienced during my five years studying in the United States.”

Recalling the point at which the lion that menaced his loved ones finally was killed, Nzou didn’t hold back. “[N]o one cared whether its murderer was a local person or a white trophy hunter, whether it was poached or killed legally,” Nzou wrote. “We danced and sang about the vanquishing of the fearsome beast and our escape from serious harm.”

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Well-Known Member

Saw that Op-Ed and was kind of amazed that the NYT ran with it. Also had a similar one in the (Red) StarTribune here in Mpls. by a former citizen of Zimbabwe.

There was provision for legal, orderly hunting. It was done during hunting seasons and by those with hunting licenses. Only rich, white tourists and hunters could afford this trophy-hunting business. Their legal hunting was for sport, while our illegal hunting was for food. What they killed, they took pictures of and collected horns and went away to brag. Perfectly legal. What we killed, we ate. Very criminal. I also learned that tourism was largely white and that hunting was white and male. We — the poor, black, rural people — did not enjoy the safety of off-road canopy vehicles while taking pictures of beautiful wild animals.

Our encounters with wildlife like gazelles, rabbits, lions and hyenas were usually tragic combats for survival. Gazelles or rabbits got killed because they were food. Lions got killed because they were deadly.

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